Friday, 28 May 2010

Nothing To Hide, Nothing To Fear..?

Officers spent an evening at Rileys, in the High Road, following concerns about non-members trying to get in and cause trouble.

Wow, 80 people tried to get in to this club?

During the raid they swabbed the hands of 80 people to check for traces of cocaine.

Two of them tested positive and were searched, but no drugs were found. The pair were turned away from the club.

Ah, I see. They didn’t swab the hands of people trying to get in to the club and cause trouble at all. They swabbed everyone.

Why did they think they could do that?

Sgt Mark McQuade, of Benfleet police, said they had been invited to the club to help the owner keep the troublemakers out.

Good grief! There's always one, isn't there? Actually, these days, more than one.

Hmmm. Wonder if they swabbed him and his staff too?

Mr McQuade said they were now hoping to carry out similar operations at licensed premises across the rest of the borough.

Why not? The door’s been opened after all…

He said: “We have to get the landlords on board with it and sometimes the brewery, and if they are happy for us to do it we’ll go down there. It’s always good for the residents and customers that they feel a bit of peace of mind because we are there.”

Mmm, it always makes me feel safer when the police start swabbing everyone around me for drugs rather than deal with the few troublemakers….

6 comments:

As it is a well established fact that every banknote that has been in circulation for more than 2 weeks has been used for taking illegal substances I am surprised that only two had traces on them, this is guilt by currency useage and is farcical.That anyone would ask the rozzers to come and test for drugs is also farcical given the above scenario, and they should not be alloweed to use police time and manpower let alone the public funding issues to do this. Why can't clubs etc buy there own testing kit and get the door personel to do it anyway???

Reasonable suspicion is required for a Police Officer (nothing less than a PC, mind) to demand a Alchohol/Drug test. That is why they follow you in the car until you make a mistake, like not indicating in time, not using your mirrors sufficiently, crossing the median, etc. Then they have a reasonable suspicion to test if your driving ability is impaired.

It is not illegal to be intoxicated as a pedestrian, so long as you are a) Capable, ie. you can walk in a straight(ish) line and are not throwing up/urinating etc. and b) Not disorderly, ie. you are not shouting/singing/threatening etc. As such, it would be near impossible for the Police to have a reasonable suspicion to drug-test at random in a Pub/Bar, and I most certainly would have refused, as should everybody else in future, before this outrageous assumption that people in the pub are all junkies becomes set in stone and the Police have a right to random drug-test whomsoever they wish.